Of conventional photoconductor drum cleaning apparatuses of this type, there is one as shown in FIG. 1. Operating with a photoconductor drum a, this photoconductor drum cleaning apparatus includes two cleaning rolls b and c which are juxtaposed with the photoconductor drum a at two vertically spaced positions in a direction in which it is rotated. The cleaning rolls b and c are rotated reversely in direction with respect to the peripheral surface of the rotating photoconductor drum a and in frictional sliding (rubbing) contact with the peripheral surface of the photoconductor drum a. The upper cleaning roll b is constructed of a rubbing body (sponge) d mounted in a layer around an axial member while the lower cleaning roll c is constructed also of a rubbing body (sponge) d mounted in a layer around a cylinder e having its peripheral wall formed with numbers of small hole and its hollow provided with a suction pipe f. The apparatus also includes a spray nozzle g for spraying a cleaning liquid towards the upper cleaning nozzle b, a cleaning blade h disposed between the two cleaning rolls b and c, and cleaning blades i and j disposed in contact with the peripheral surfaces of the cleaning rolls b and c, respectively, for cleaning their surfaces (See JP 2004-271833 A).
The conventional photoconductor drum cleaning apparatus has problem in cost because of two vertically spaced cleaning rolls b and c in its makeup, the upper of which is supplied with cleaning solution. Also, because of the interlocked coupling between the two cleaning rolls b and c, their respective speeds of rotation cannot be adjusted individually so that it is hard to control and optimize rolls' speeds of rotation to follow changes in image recording speed over an entire range of image recording speeds.
Also, a cleaning blade brought into contact with each of surfaces of the two cleaning rolls b and c for cleaning them may damage the surfaces of the cleaning rolls which are composed of sponge.
Further, because of the structure that toner and carrier solutions scraped off by a cleaning blade h interposed between the two cleaning rolls are removed via the lower cleaning roll c, the toner and carrier solution scraped off by the cleaning blade h located above may reattach onto the photoconductor drum a from the lower cleaning roll c, leaving rooms for improvement to achieve a desired cleaning efficiency.